The invention pertains to the field of cooking appliances, and in particular to cooking appliances having multiple racks which stack within a cooking vessel.
To increase the surface area available for cooking, cooking appliances sometimes include a number of cooking racks that can be stacked together, vertically, within a cooking vessel to increase the amount of food items that may be put into a cooking appliance of a given width or xe2x80x9cfootprint.xe2x80x9d
While known multiple cooking racks provide certain benefits, they also increase the number of cooking components that the user must manage during a cooking session. To stack such racks in a cooking vessel, the user may first place the lower rack in the cooking vessel and then carefully place the upper rack on the lower rack, making sure that the two racks are aligned. Alternatively, the user can stack the two racks prior to placing them in the vessel, and then lower the stack of racks into the vessel while grasping both racks to ensure that they remain stacked together. These methods can be difficult and uncomfortable, especially if the vessel or surround area is hot.
Likewise, to remove stacked cooking racks, the user may have to grasp the upper rack, remove it from the cooking vessel and place the upper rack on an alternate support surface (e.g., a counter-top or table). Then, in a second step, the user may have to remove the lower rack and place it on the alternate support surface. Alternatively, the user may be able to grasp the lower rack first and remove the stack in one step, however this is often difficult or not possible.
When the racks are removed separately, it is also often difficult or not possible for the user to re-stack the racks on the alternate support surface (especially if the racks are hot) so the user is required to place the lower rack at a different location on the alternate support surface thereby occupying additional working area of the support surface.
To move a cooking rack, it is often desirable to use a utensil rather than one""s hand to avoid a burn. However, prior types of cooking racks either require a special, dedicated utensil that serves no other purpose and may be difficult to replace if lost, or, if they permit the use of a standard kitchen utensil, do not provide sufficient stability.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of prior cooking devices by providing a cooking appliance having a vessel which contains multiple, stacking racks which may be quickly and conveniently connected and disconnected by the user thereby enabling the user to handle the stack of racks as one unit for inserting and removing the racks from the vessel. Further, a user can use a standard fork utensil to move the racks in a convenient and stable manner.
In one embodiment, the cooking appliance of the present invention includes multiple locking clips disposed around a circular periphery of a lower rack. An upper rack includes openings to receive the locking clips of the lower rack. The racks are interconnected by stacking the racks together and rotating the racks relative to one another in a quick and convenient manner. Specifically, to interconnect the racks, the racks are stacked together with the openings in the upper rack aligned with the locking clips of the lower rack. Then, the racks are rotated relative to one another to engage the lock. When the racks rotate through a predetermined arc relative to one another, the racks will interconnect such that the lower rack can be lifted by and suspended from the upper rack. In addition, when the lock is engaged and lower rack is suspended by the upper rack, the locking clips drop below a plane of the top of the food item support surface of the upper rack thereby preventing unintended rotation of the racks when the racks are moved by the user.
In addition, the food item support surface of one or both of the racks includes rectangular slots sized to closely receive the tines of a standard kitchen fork, which may be used to lift and transport the rack.